Lost! A Kakashi fanfic
by AnimePirate223
Summary: What would happen if Kakashi Hatake ended up in the real world?
1. Missing Ninja

Hi everyone!!! :D Thanks for reading this story! This is my first try EVER at writing a fanfic, so I apologize in advance if it's terrible......

PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE rate/review!

oh, and..

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Naruto manga... or Kakashi... (I wish!) Masashi Kisomoto does...

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Kakashi Hatake was waiting. He had been for a while, but he had infinite patience..... well, not really, but he could, at least, outwait his opponent. His mission- to apprehend a Kohona missing-nin and return him to the village. He was concealed in the leaves and branches of an enormous oak, waiting for the rogue ninja to stumble into the trap he had laid hours before. As a breeze ruffled the summer-green leaves, he shifted in the tree, gazing out at the path ahead.

Suddenly, he heard a careful, nearly silent footstep, and he whipped around to see the missing-nin. At last, his quarry had appeared. After watching for a few more seconds, he decided that the ninja wasn't going to walk directly into his trap- he'd need to drive him into it. He reached up and pushed up his hiti-ate headband, revealing his sharingan eye, and leapt from tree to tree silently above his enemy's head.

Dropping to the ground, allowing himself to make an audible thump, he drew a kunai and tensed as the shinobi spun toward him, eyes wide, reaching for the sword hanging at his side. The missing-nin charged, swinging the broad sword at Kakashi's head, but Kakashi easily avoided the blow, ducking under his opponent's outstretched arm and wrenching the sword from his grasp. He tossed it off into the brush and sprang back, landing on his feet a few yards away. He then pulled serveral shuriken from their holster at his side and flung them, trying to drive the rogue back and into the trap. The ninja stepped back slowly, casting suspicious glances over his shoulder.

His eyes focused on a cleverly disguised rope. With a smug grin on his face, he stepped over it and turned back toward Kakashi, still retreating, but now with confidence. Kakashi just returned the smile and took another step forward. Confused by Kakashi's reaction, the rogue turned and looked behind him, spotting the thin, near-invisible wire seconds too late.

The disguised rope had been a decoy. Stumbling over the wire, a weighted rope spun from a tree, wrapping around the missing-ninja, impossibly tangling him. Kakashi advanced, and the panicked look in the other ninja's eyes intensified. Struggling with the ropes, he brought his hands together and began weaving a complex pattern of signs. Realizing what he was doing, Kakashi lunged forward, trying to stop him.... but he was too late.

Just as he reached the shinobi, the air shimmered, thickened, and everything went dark. For a few seconds, there was nothing but blackness and a rush of air. The darkness faded as quickly as it had arrived, whatever jutsu the rogue shinobi had used taking effect and dropping Kakashi Hatake, the great Copy-Ninja, onto his behind in a puddle in the middle of another dimension- a place known to us as..... New York City.


	2. Fate

Yay, chapter two already!!!! Special thanks to tehbeastxx for being my first reviewer ever and giving me the suggestion to type in paragraphs, and to my friend 7andthefluff for helping me with this story from the beginning! *gives cookies* Anyway, I hope you like it! Rate and Review, please?

Oh, and I don't own Naruto!

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Kakashi pulled himself to his feet and stepped out of the alley, looking around at the odd buildings and people, confused. Immediately, he was nearly run over by a trio of skateboarders, a psychopathic jogger, and a lunatic on rollerblades. Eyes wide, he dodged back into the relative safety of the alley and stared, bewildered, at the buzzing, honking, utter chaos of Times Square.

Already getting a few curious stares from passerby, some of who looked even odder than he did, he lowered his head and, this time looking both ways, left the alley. He edged his way up the sidewalks, jostled by the rushing crowds all around him. He wandered a few blocks, trying to get his bearings, then looked across the street, confused by the sea of gleaming, colorful steel-and-chrome domes that moved along it. After deciding that they didn't look too dangerous, he stepped off the curb, into the road, and started to make his way across. Being narrowly missed serveral times, he flinched away from the cars, now regretting his decision to try and cross.

By now, most of the drivers had stopped and were honking and yelling. He paused and looked back and forth, unsure of what to do. A brown-haired woman ran up to him, and grabbing him by the arm, growled, "What the _heck_ do you think you're doing?!?" as she yanked him out of the road. Once they were safely back on the curb, she turned to him, probabaly to yell at him again. Knowing this, he drew back slightly.

Instead, she took one look at his silver hair, hiti-ate headband, the dark mask covering the lower half of his face, and stared, slack-jawed. His eyes widened. She was dressed like the other people here, wearing heels and a business suit, and of course, much older, the familar purple bands painted across her cheeks gone, but there was still no mistaking her.... "Rin?!?" He choked out, staring incredulously. "Kakashi?" She gasped, her last words before she crumpled into a dead faint.

He lunged forward and caught her limp form before she hit the ground, carrying her over to a nearby park bench. He laid her down, tucking his green vest under her head as a pillow, and sat next to her, trying to sort out his jumbled thoughts. He was utterly lost in an entirely different world, the one person who might have been able to help him unconsious. He muttered something under his breath about "Stupid missing-ninjas!" and stared out into the leaves of the trees. Those, at least, were familiar.

Meanwhile, back in Kohona, Tsunade was searching for Kakashi. "Where is that idiot?" she muttered to her asisstant, Shizune, pushing strands of her blonde hair off her forehead in frustration. "He's always late, of course, but not this late! He was supposed to be back yesterday!" Pacing the floor, she turned to Shizune. "You don't think something could have happened, do you?.... It was such a simple mission..." Shizune just shook her head helplessly.

"Why don't we just give him a few more hours, then send out a search party?" She suggested softly, trying to calm her hokage down. Tsunade nodded and took a deep breath. "I'll do that... would you find Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and..... Gai for me, please, Shizune?" Her assistant nodded, and setting Tonton the pig down on the floor, left the office to track down the four ninja.


	3. Pursuit

Yay, third chapter! A HUGE thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far!!! You guys are awesome! :D

this is the first long chapter I've managed to write... *applause*

Anyway, like always, I really hope you like it, please rate and review.. :)

and I don't own Naruto.... okay, enough said.. here's chapter three! ^^

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When Rin woke up, Kakashi was sitting beside her. Remembering what had happened, her eyes widened, and for just a moment, she thought she might faint again. He had his back to her, staring off into the trees. She looked at him for the longest time, surprised at how painfully familiar he was.. his hair, his eyes, even the way he held his head when he was thinking.. it reminded her of all those years. She shook her head to clear the thoughts from it and sat up. At the sound he turned and smiled at her.

As warm as the smile was, his eyes looked troubled.. of course. She just returned his smile and handed him his vest, which he put back on. "So.." She said, "What happened?" He sighed and stood up. "It'd be easier to show you. Shall we?" He offered her his hand, pulling her up from the bench, and the two headed back toward the alley.

Back in Kohona, Tsunade leaned on her desk, looking at Kakashi's three students. "What are we doing??? Something good?!? Where's Kakashi-Sensei???" Naruto yelled, earning a smack on the head from Sakura, who told him to shut up. Despite the kids' antics, Tsunade didn't lose her serious look. She shuffled some papers, then met the kids' eyes. "Your sensei has gone missing." She said softly.

The three genins' eyes widened and Sakura choked back a gasp. "So," Tsunade continued. "Your mission is to find him. If I'm right, he's probabaly just dawdling... and if that's the case, you just need to tell him to get his sorry hide back here now." She said, tapping a long-nailed finger on her desk for emphasis. "But if I'm wrong.... then your mission is to track down whoever's responsible, find your sensei, and bring him back. Got it?"

The three students nodded. "Good. Now, since this could easily become a dangerous mission, I've assigned a jounin to go with you." She glanced at the door as it opened and Gai walked in, grinning. All three of the kids rolled their eyes. Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but Sakura smacked him again, encouraging him to keep his mouth shut. Tsunade handed Gai the papers and sent them off. It didn't take long to find the clearing where Kakashi had done battle with the missing-nin. The group split up to search, Gai going one direction, the three kids going in the other.

The kids found the rogue first. The ninja still sat in the grass, sawing through the tangled ropes with Kakashi's kunai. Naruto's eyes narrowed, and he tensed, about to run. "Wait, Naruto!" Sakura whispered furiously, grabbing him by the hand. "We need to wait for Gai-Sensei! He told us not to charge in without him!" Naruto shook her hand away. "I don't care! I'm going to find out what that jerk did to Kakashi-Sensei!" With that, he sprang out into the clearing before his teammates could stop him.

He ran right up to the shinobi and snatched the kunai from his hand, demanding to know what had been done with their teacher. With a frustrated growl, Sakura followed, Sasuke trailing behind, muttering something about what an idiot Naruto was. The former Kohona shinobi was dodging Naruto's yelled questions, answering as simply as he could. "What did you do with him???"

"I sent him away."

"WHERE?!? Take us to him!!!!" A smile flickered across the ninja's face. "Gladly." He once again started weaving the complicated signs.

Sasuke and Sakura both charged, realizing what Naruto had just done, but they were frozen in midair as the breeze around them thickened, shimmered, and darkened. Whith a soft pop, the three genin appeared in the same place their sensei had, landing with a thud on top of Kakashi, who had been explaining to Rin what had happened. "Are you all right, Sakura?" asked Naruto, not bothering to check on Sasuke. "I'm fine.. something broke my fall." She replied, and the three noticed, for the first time, what they had landed on. "KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto cheered, grabbing his teacher and hugging him enthusiastically.

Kakashi made small choking noise, then gasped out "I'm.. just as glad to see you... but would you please.. get off of me.. before I'm.. completely squished?" He asked in a pained tone. The three kids got off their flattened teacher, Rin helping him to his feet. As the introductions were made, Sakura and Naruto got into a fight over whose fault their situation was. "It's all your fault, Naruto! If you hadn't charged out like that, we wouldn't be here!"

"If we weren't here, we wouldn't have found Kakashi-Sensei!" Naruto retorted. Kakashi turned back to Rin and shrugged helplessly, rolling his eyes.

Sasuke finally spoke up, asking what may have been the only useful question all day. "Now what?"


	4. Path of Destruction

Chapter four! Just want to let you guys know that updates might slow down from this point on. I've finally caught up to what I've written so far. I've gotten the start of chapter five in my head, though, so with a little luck, it'll be updated before the end of this week....

anyway, to ALL you guys who have favorited, reviewed, messaged, or just read, this story, especially rainbowsandblood, tehbeastxx, and 7andthefluff, thanks SO, SO much! You're awesome!!!!!

Anyway, hope you like it! Thanks again! :)

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Rin managed to get the four ninja into her car, with some persuasion, and soon they were heading for her apartment on the other side of town. The kids were looking at the scenery flashing by, eyes wide, taking in the strange sights, exept for Naruto, who had his head hanging _out_ the window. About halfway through their ride, Naruto became fascinated with the power windows, rolling them up and down repeatedly despite Sakura's protests.

His fun ended, however, when he got his head stuck in the window. As he learned, rolling windows up and down about four hundred times does nothing for the battery life. Fortunately, they managed to get him out without too much trouble, arriving at Rin's apartment a few minutes later. She left the four shinobi there, with instructions not to answer the door or burn the place down- which wasn't nearly enough restriction, although she didn't know that. With a promise to return as soon as she could, she hurried back to work.

As Kakashi found some paper and began scribbling down hand signs with the help of his Sharingan, trying to piece together the transportation jutsu the missing-nin had used, his students explored the house. Sakura, poking around, soon discovered the television and was dead to the world. Naruto, who had, of course, gone straight to the kitchen, found the instant ramen and attempted to cook. Sasuke was trying to turn on Rin's computer, without much luck... a relatively normal scene. This wasn't, however, what Rin saw when she returned.

What she found was her living room littered with pens, crumpled papers, and scribbled notes, written on everything from the scrap paper on the coffee table to the backs of her library books, the things that had been on the coffee table scattered around the floor, and the person responsible for it all, Kakashi, fast asleep on the sofa. Sakura was still watching t.v., a glazed look in her eyes. Not too worried by this, Rin progressed to the kitchen, which was the problem. All the cooking utensils had been removed from the cabinents and scattered around the counter, table, and floor. A burst bag of flour gave everything a fine white coating. More than one pot of badly burned ramen still sat on the stove, smoking, not to mention an entire bottle of Coke lying on its side, pouring its contents out onto her freshly mopped kitchen floor.

Following the floury footprints, she found Sasuke still trying to turn on the computer, now being assisted by Naruto, who honestly, wasn't helping at all. Eyes wide, she returned to the living room to the sound of breaking glass. Sakura, who had been yelling at the characters of a movie, had finally lost her patience and killed the television, which refused to go down without a fight, taking a glass end table, the lamp, and the DVD player with it. Between the wreckage of her television- and everything near it, the mess that had been made of her coffee table, the area around it, and her kitchen, it looked like her apartment had been ransacked by lunatics.

Rin plopped down on the opposite end of the sofa from Kakashi and stared, speechless, at the ruins of her once-neat apartment. Naruto chose that inopportune moment to wander in. Seeing the look on her face, he asked what was wrong. She mumbled something incoherent in reply and continued staring at the wreckage. Naruto shrugged and trotted off to the kitchen to try and cook again.


	5. The Search

Hey everyone! :D I'm really sorry that this was so late- everything's been so busy lately, and I've been having a really hard time coming up with this chapter.... hopefully, that doesn't show on the finished product! I tried to write it in a certain way... but the story just refused to be written, which is why this chapter bears absolutely NO resemblance to the original chapter five. After struggling for a really long time, I just scrapped the entire thing, started over writing something completely different, and came up with this. Hopefully, it's better!

Once again, a giant thanks to everyone who reviewed and favorited so far, or just read!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto..... Trust me, if I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfictions, lol......

Anyway, on to chapter five!

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For the four Kohona shinobi, the past few days had consisted mainly of struggling to put together the transportation jutsu that was the cause of all their troubles, constant battles between Naruto and Sakura, and Rin struggling to help them the best she could. Kakashi, unable to concentrate because of Naruto and Sakura's fistfights and arguing, had given his students a training exercise and sent them outside. As he sat at the kitchen table, his pen tapping slowly on the notepad, he struggled to remember the few signs that were still missing. Sighing, he stared out the window, watching the birds clustered at the feeder outside. As the bright-red wings of an exeptionally colorful cardinal flashed aross his line of vision, it suddenly clicked.

Scribbling the sign of the Bird in between the Rooster and Dog signs, he looked at the few gaps left. Only five more.... once again stuck, he absentmindedly doodled shapes on the paper as he dredged the back of his memory, searching for the missing signs. The apartment door suddenly banged open, jolting the jounin out of his thoughts. Sakura was standing there, eyes wide, looking extremely distressed. "What happened, Sakura?" Kakashi asked quickly, his mind already running through the hundreds of terrible possibilities. "Naruto's gone!" She replied, pushing a hank of her wind-blown pink hair out of her eyes.

"What? How?" the sensei asked, leaping from his chair, his pen clattering to the tile floor, the scribbled-on notepad forgotten. "We don't know!" said Sakura, her already-panicked tone increasing in intensity.

"We were just doing the training exercise one moment.. and the next, he was gone! We don't even have any idea where he went!" Jotting a hasty note on a page of the notebook, he left it on the kitchen table for Rin and dashed outside, Sakura following behind. He stood on the grass of the apartment's back lawn, looking around.

Seeing no sign of his orange-clad student, he turned to Sasuke and Sakura, his one visible eye dark with concern. "I'm going to go look for him... he couldn't have gotten too far. Stay here, just in case he comes back... I won't be too long. Don't go anywhere.. I don't want to lose you too." he urgently commanded. As the two genin nodded, Kakashi darted a quick glance around to be sure no one was watching, then wove a quick series of hand signs, bringing both hands down onto the grass. In the resulting cloud of smoke, his eight ninja hounds materialized.

Pakkun, leaping down from his perch on the head of the largest dog, noticed his master's expression, and disregarding their unusual surroundings, immediately trotted up, sitting on his haunches at Kakashi's feet. "What is it, Kakashi?" Kakashi pushed a hand restlessly through his silver hair. "Naruto's gone missing...."

the masked sensei began. "I'm going to need you to track him for me, please." Holding one of Naruto's kunai out for the dogs to sniff, he stood and began dividing his hounds into teams of two. "Fan out and search in all directions.. Pakkun, you and Uhei head west. Guruko, Akino, you go east.... Bisuke and Shiba will go south, and Bull and Urushi can go north. I'll stay around here and search in this area. If you find him, bring him back immediately.. please."

Pakkun nodded briskly, barking some quick commands to the pack. Within moments, the eight dogs had scattered, leaving no trace other than a few pawprints in the mud and the faint, quickly disappearing summoning smoke to prove they had ever been there. Kakashi set off, heading for the front of the building. Pushing through the large glass doors, he headed around the block, desperately searching for the familiar blonde head in the crowds. "Naruto.." he muttered quietly, the concern evident in his voice, "What have you gotten yourself into this time?..." Back at the apartment complex, Sakura was rambling on in a panicked tone, mainly to herself, under the pretense of trying to reassure Sasuke.

"He'll be all right.. Kakashi-Sensei and all the hounds are out looking for him... Kakashi-Sensei knows what he's doing.. usually...." The pink-haired kuonichi ground her teeth in frustration, pacing the narrow expanse of grass in the back lot. Sasuke sat, his back against a tree, keeping lookout for their missing teammate, as Sakura continued muttering.. "I swear, if he doesn't have a good reason for doing this, I'm going to pound him into the ground when he gets back..."


	6. The Return

Yay, chapter six already!!! This update went a lot faster than I thought... the ending of chapter five pretty much lead me here instantly. This was one of the easiest chapters to write so far, not to mention my longest, and personally, I think, the best one I've managed to write. :D

Of course, a HUGE thanks to all my reviewers, favoriters and readers!

I don't own Naruto... but I wish I did..

On with chapter six!!!!!!

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As the search continued for Naruto, it became more and more difficult to find him. As time passed, his scent slowly faded, making him harder for the dogs to track. On top of that, a light rain began to fall, erasing the scent even more quickly. Kakashi's loyal dogs, however, wouldn't give up the search, faithfully sniffing at the ground, trying to detect even the slightest trace of the lost genin.

The Copy-Ninja himself was also still searching, glancing up and down the streets. Thankfully, when the rain began to fall, the crowds had thinned out a bit, making it just that much easier to spot Naruto- if he was anywhere to be seen... and so far, he wasn't. Back at Rin's apartment, Sasuke and Sakura still kept a silent lookout, sitting on the worn wooden bench under the green-and gold-striped awning over the back doors, looking out into the falling rain, hoping to spot their missing teammate.

Kakashi, who had, by now, given up the search in the nearer blocks, continued on further, ignoring the increasing rain, moving in wider and wider circles around the area, desperately searching for his absentee student. Pushing some of his drenched silver hair out of his eyes, he murmured softly to himself. "Naruto.. please be all right.." Sasuke and Sakura, keeping their vigil at the back doors, were thinking much the same thing.

Rin returned from her work at the hospital, her silver minivan pulling into the apartment's parking lot, tires squealing on the wet pavement. Opening her umbrella and stepping out of the van, she approached the wide doors, carring two McDonald's bags. Entering her apartment to complete silence, she immediately noticed that something was wrong. Leaving her damp umbrella and her doctor's coat in the entryway, she quietly clicked the door shut behind her, locking it, and made her way to the kitchen. Setting the bags on the table, she spotted the note, and as she read it, her eyes widened. Dashing down the stairs, she ran to the back of the apartment building, and banging open the back doors, spotted Sasuke and Sakura on the bench.

"Have you found him yet?" She asked, looking hopefully at the two genin, already knowing what the answer would be. They just shook their heads, Sakura close to tears. "And Kakashi is still looking for him?"

The two junior shinobi just nodded wordlessly. Rin sighed helplessly and sank to the bench beside Sakura, an equal amount of desperation in her eyes. Meanwhile, Kakashi's circling had grown large enough that he'd run into more than one of his hound teams, who still hadn't found even a trace of Naruto.

Kakashi looked at Pakkun, his visible eye troubled. "You've done all you can do... the rain must be erasing his scent by now... " The jounin said to his dog. Pakkun nodded sadly, his ears and tail drooping. "Thank you anyway... " Kakashi continued softly, giving Pakkun a gentle pat on the head. Pakkun gave a nod, and with a feeble tail wag and goodbye, vanished in a cloud of summon-smoke, taking the rest of the scattered pack with him.

At the apartment, Rin had just gone in to get them their coats, and Sakura was just about to suggest that they follow her inside, watching from the dry apartment building, when she spotted a familiar orange coat moving toward her from across the little-used back road behind the apartments.

Squinting into the driving rain, she turned to Saskuke. "Saskuke-kun, it's Naruto! Go get Rin!" Sasuke nodded a confirmation, and pushing the doors open, ran upstairs. Naruto took one look at Sakura's relived, still-shocked expression, and said the worst thing he possibly could have said at that moment. "Who died?"

Sakura, with a scream of rage, dashed across the road, meeting him halfway, hitting him on the head as hard as she possibly could. "We thought _you_ did, you baka! Where have you been?!?" Naruto, knocked onto his behind from the force of Sakura's punch, looked up in surprise. "I was following the ice-cream truck." he replied, ever-so-innocent, utterly unaware of the panic he had caused. "Didn't catch it, though.." he added with some disappointment. This only served to infuriate Sakura further. Launching a kick at her teammate, who only moments ago, she had been desperately worried about, she slipped on the damp road and fell onto her hands and knees.

In that moment, two things happened. One, their sensei returned, noticing both his missing student and Sakura in the middle of the empty road, and visibly sighed with relief. Two, a large white-and pink truck turned the corner... it was, ironically, an ice-cream truck. Not noticing the two kids in the middle of the street at first, the pouring rain obscuring his vision, the driver continued on at breakneck speed. Finally spotting the children, the driver leaned on his horn and honked at the two oddly-dressed kids, slamming on the brakes, but skidding on the wet road. The truck sped on, the slick road, terrible brakes, and its own momentum still carrying it foward with shocking speed and force. Naruto and Sakura were scrambling to their feet, trying to get out of the path of the fast-approaching vehicle, but not moving nearly fast enough.

Kakashi, noticing the perilous situation his young charges were in, reacted instantly, covering the short distance in a few quick, desperate strides. Sasuke and Rin came outside just in time to see the Copy-Ninja lunge into the street, moving with all the speed and accuracy of a high-ranked shinobi, which was barely fast enough to reach the two genin. He pushed both Naruto and Sakura out of the way seconds before the truck would have hit them... which left him directly in the path of the vehicle. With a horrible squeal of brakes and a muffled thump, the truck stopped- just as it barreled straight into Kakashi.

Sakura and Naruto, who were only a foot or two away, watched in helpless horror as their sensei was hit by the truck- in the process of saving them. Sakura, the most sensitive of the group, instantly burst into tears, and Rin ran over, followed by Sasuke. The driver of the vehicle in question stepped out, surveying the scene. Pulling out his cell phone, looking shell-shocked, he began to dial the emergency number. Rin darted forward and stopped him, knowing full-well that Kakashi's lack of an identity in _this_ world would lead to questions they couldn't answer or explain away. "No!" she cried, snatching the phone away. The driver stared at her in puzzlement, blinking. Struggling to calm herself and blinking back tears of her own, Rin handed the phone back.

"I...I'm a doctor... " She gulped out, her throat tight. "It's fine... go on.. we'll take care of this..." The driver, not wanting to get any more involved than he already was, obliged, getting back into his truck and driving away, with a last guilty glance at the people in the road. Rin, blinking back tears, glanced at the three horrified genin, and the silver-haired jounin lying, unmoving, on the wet pavement. Sakura had collapsed to the ground, sobs shaking her shoulders. She lifted her head, her green eyes brimming with tears, and gulped out "He.. He saved us..."


	7. Realization

FINALLY, chapter seven! WOOOO! To all my readers, I'm sorry this didn't show up much sooner. Between writer's block, a lot of things to do, and general laziness, this chapter just wouldn't get itself written, T.T… I'm so incredibly sorry, and again, a huge thank you to everyone, ESPECIALLY my good friend 7andthefluff for not letting me quit on this story and giving me the ideas for this chapter… THANK YOOOUUUU! :3 As always, hope you like it and that I didn't ruin the story with this.. Umm, you'll see, lol.. Please enjoy!

Rin struggled to pull herself together, staring at the unconscious jounin, the shocked Naruto, the sobbing Sakura, and the silent Sasuke. She swallowed and tried to hide the tremor in her voice as she spoke. "Naruto, Sasuke, help me move him, please. Sakura, go up ahead of us and make sure there's no one on the stairway to see." With Sakura confirming that the coast was clear, they moved him up the stairs, Rin wincing every time he shifted. Normally, she wouldn't do this.. But right now, they had no other choice.

Reaching the door, she fumbled with her key, struggling to both help Naruto and Sasuke hold him up and open the door. Finally, pushing it open with one foot, leaving the key in the lock, she cleared their path. "Put him in the living room… I'll be right back." She dashed to the hall closet, pulling out an emergency medical bag, then her bedroom, where she changed out of her soaked clothes, tying her damp hair back.

She immediately rushed back to the living room, where he had been laid carefully on the rug, one of her sofa pillows tucked under his head. The genin had left the room, probably at Sasuke's suggestion, to give her room to work. She swallowed, trying not to cry, and dropped to her knees beside him on the plush rug. She pushed some of his hair out of his eyes, her gaze softening as she saw his face. In sleep, forced or not, the lines of his face were softer, gentler. Her fingers brushed at the edge of his mask for a second, but she shook her head.

Why was she so easily distracted?… She had a job to do... Even with the way his silver hair, still damp, fell across his cheeks, or way the soft sound of his breathing… She smacked herself in the forehead with annoyance, returning her attention to the task at hand. Unzipping his vest, prodded his sides gently through the slightly-damp shirt, noting that nothing seemed to be broken, only bruised. Good. He'd be fine then. She shifted him over to the sofa, covering him with a blanket from the hall closet. She moved to the door and turned the light off, the soft click of the switch loud in the silent room.

Standing in the doorway, she stared at him, silver hair glittering in the dim golden light of the lamp, and listened to the rain outside. She swallowed. When she'd first been sent here… she'd missed Kohona terribly, or so she thought. But with the way she'd been acting tonight, against her own will…. Maybe it had been Kakashi, more than Kohona, she'd missed. It was obvious now that she'd never really gotten over him. She crossed the room and leaned over him, strands of brown hair brushing her cheeks, just staring. Slowly, she leaned closer, pressing her lips to the soft cloth still covering his, her eyes closed. "Kakashi…" She murmured softly.

She sat down on the other end of the sofa, as near to him as she could be, and listened to the rain.


	8. Murder Weapon

Finally! It's up! Eternally sorry about the delay…. Haven't had much time with lately….. Please R and R, Hope you enjoy!

Kakashi returned to the living room after breakfast to find Rin flipping through his beloved Icha Icha, eyes wide. Worried for his book, he stood beside her, watching the well-worn novel like a mother hen. Rin finally snapped the tiny volume shut and raised her gaze to his. "You know," she began in an emotionless tone, "I should burn this."

Kakashi's eyes widened and he desperately searched her gaze for a hint of laughter. There was only a wicked smirk across her lips. She was dead serious. Or at least pretending to be. He grabbed for the book, only for her to yank it away, hiding it behind her back. "Now, Rin," Kakashi began, approaching her cautiously, like you would an unpredictable dog, "There's no need at all for this." He took a cautious step. "Give me the book, please."

Rin didn't move, dark eyes narrowed, yet gleaming with laughter. "You don't need this! Gah! I should have known you being left alone with all those perverts would have done this to you!" Ignoring his slow approach, she held his gaze. "Please."

"No." As Kakashi finally got too close, Rin, still with the most basic of her ninja training, leapt over the back of the sofa, giggling. Kakashi lunged after her, not trusting her with the book. "Stop it! That's the only copy of volume two I have! And it's a first edition!" Rin rolled her eyes. "So you have multiple copies of the other volumes? Seriously?" Kakashi shook his head quickly. "…No." Rin sighed. "This is sad. Very sad." Kakashi shrugged. "I know! Now give me the books, please! Before I have to do something I'll regret."

Rin laughed. "What exactly?" She had to know. Something about Kakashi's expression was making her uncomfortable. "Well, I know something." Rin stared at Kakashi, unsettled by the evil gleam in his visible eye. "Here." With a sigh, she tossed the book toward the silver-haired ninja. "I was only teasing. Really." He caught it and clutched it to his chest, an almost-childish pout on his face. Hands on her hips, Rin leaned toward him. "Now, what do you know?" Kakashi shook his head. "Trust me, you don't want to know that I know this. " Kakashi said hesitantly. "Tell me!" She insisted. Kakashi pondered for a moment. "Fine, but I warned you. You will regret this." The annoyed former medic-nin tossed a notepad at Kakashi. The flimsy paper-and-cardboard book bounced off his chest. They both watched it fall to the carpeted floor.

Rin finally broke the silence. "Tell me already!" Seeing the positively evil glint in the copy-ninja's eyes, Rin immediately regretted her spur-of-the-moment demand. Did she really want to know? Kakashi, smirking slightly, tilted his head. "Fine. It's just this. You would never have burned my book." Rin laughed suddenly. "That's it? And how are you so sure?" Kakashi, gleeful demeanor never breaking, continued. "You didn't let me finish. You would never have burned my book… because it would have made me very, very sad." Rin giggled. "And that would have bothered me?" she asked, lying through her teeth. "Yes." Kakashi grinned. Rin paled. "Because you-" He was cut off by a sofa pillow smacking him in the face.

"Don't you say it!" Rin growled, eyes glinting. Kakashi laughed as she continued pummeling him with pillows, and when those ran out, old TV guides. "Stop it! You know it's true! You loooooooove me!" Yet another pillow hit him in the head. "I told you not to say it!" Finally, doubled over with laughter, eyes glittering, she abandoned her attack on Kakashi. She had run out of sofa pillows. Searching for more ammuniton, she carefully skirted the room. Spotting a cotton-candy pink pillow at her feet, she charged, knocking over the coffee table in the process.

And it was thus that Kakashi's genin team woke up at 7:30 in the morning to loud clattering, discovering that the perpetrator was Rin, who was attempting to murder their sensei with a pink sofa pillow. "What the heck are they doing?" Naruto asked sleepily, blinking. Sasuke shrugged. Sakura laughed, the only one with any clue. It seemed their little group had just grown by one person.


End file.
